Expect Daimler's new plant to be right next to Nissan's in Mexico

It was only a few weeks ago that Mercedes-Benz CEO Dieter Zetsche laid out his global sales vision for the brand, aiming to be the world's Number One luxury automaker by 2020 with 2.7 million annual sales. One component of that plan is building another plant in North America, and a report by the TheDetroitBureau.com indicates that the plant will be built in Aguascalientes, Mexico – right next to a Nissan assembly plant that's already there.

Nissan recently announced a two billion dollar expansion of its Aguascalientes facility to produce up to 175,000 units annually. According to the Bureau report, "the sprawling Aguascalientes complex has been laid out with the idea that the German maker will eventually participate." Daimler hasn't commented officially, but if it does happen, then that would give Daimler and Renault-Nissan two tie-up locations, the other being in Tennessee where Nissan will be making engines for the Mercedes-Benz A-Class (a prototype for which is shown above).

One of the factors at the heart of the Mexico decision would be Mercedes' MFA platform, which supports the A- and B-Class vehicles soon headed here: that platform is also expected to underpin the production Infiniti Etherea. And if Renault-Nissan CEO can be believed, then a great deal more sharing between the two firms is an eventuality, and further up the food chain at that. Ghosn is reported to have said last year, "You'd be very surprised if in five or six years that Mercedes and Renault-Nissan had only cooperated on small cars."